Ok, this is a little bit of a teaser…we are in the process of doing a major overhaul of how we look at the 4-Drive Model. We’ve talked about the need to update this model before (see here and here). We are underway in getting that developed and should be launching it the first quarter of 2011.
Here is a sneak peak…the four main motivations as we’ve defined them are now renamed and constitute different elements:
1. Personal Motivation- focus on the intrinsic motivators that we have and encompasses the Drive to Challenge & Comprehend
2. Reward Motivation- focus is on the extrinsic motivators that we have and encompasses the Drive to Acquire & Achieve
3. Social Motivation- focus is on the social drives that motivate us and includes the Drive to Bond & Belong
4. Passion Motivation (this name is still being hotly debated – but for now its what we are running with)… – focus is on the motivational element of purpose and passion – including defending one’s honor and tribe
I have been touting the 4-Drive Model of Employee Motivation since I first read the 2008 Harvard Business Review article “Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model” by Nohria, , Groysberg, and Lee. It is a powerful theory on human motivation in general, and in particular, employee motivation. First presented in the 2002 book, “Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices” by Lawrence and Nohria, the model outlines four main drives of motivation.
At the Lantern Group, we’ve been working with this model for almost three years now. We’ve posted on it several times in this blog (see 4-Drive Model here, Impact on Leaders here, and other info here, here, here, here and here for just a few examples).
It’s good – but not perfect.
Right away we realized that it needed to be tweaked.
Thanksgiving! The perfect holiday for being grateful…this is the holiday that is all about giving thanks and being grateful for what we have. What a great idea. A day where everyone in the country looks back at their life and gives thanks for the bounty that we’ve been given.
Wouldn’t it be great if this happened everyday!
That’s what I feel like has happened with my experiment on starting each day being grateful for something. For me, the last few months have been a mini-Thanksgiving everyday. I have found that while I don’t always get the opportunity to blog about it, I have been pretty good about waking up and finding something to be grateful for. It is amazing what that does for your outlook for the day.
I’ve found that it has:
Brought a smile to my face most days
Made me focus on what’s really important
Allowed me to have a little less stress in my life
Given me the motivation to actually say “thank you” to a few people I normally wouldn’t have
Brought to life how very lucky and blessed I am
Thank you to everyone who has read these blogs and who has commented. It really has been a very fun experiment that I’ve done. I’m planning on continuing this, but not sure if I will blog about it as much…let me know what you think.
Leave a comment and let us all know what you are thankful for.
Increasingly we are seeing data that engaged employees drive business success. As the economy recovers at the current snail’s pace, companies are also looking at their employee engagement scores deciding they’d better do something about it now before wholesale exodus occurs by their greatest resource.
Proactive talent managers planned for this factor 3 years ago.
Where are your engagement planning efforts at currently?
Emotional Engagement
Just this week, another study was released by The Brand Union, a brand strategy and design consultancy. This recent study surveyed 680 U.S. professionals revealing emotional engagement outweighs other forms of employee interaction, offering critical insights for executives who want to improve employee engagement health and create business efficiencies during lean times.
I had gotten up to let the meowing cat out at 3:30 AM – again. Needless to say I wasn’t too happy. Then I couldn’t fall back asleep – now I’m even less happy. I end up tossing and turning thinking about what I have to do today and how I need my sleep and I’m getting more and more frustrated. And then to top it off, our 11-month old baby starts to cry…
I go down to her room and pick her up out of the crib and she immediately starts to calm down – the crying subsides. I hold her and rock her for 10 minutes and she is fast asleep on my chest, her hand outstretched over my heart. She is breathing in and out peacefully as we sway back and forth in the rocking chair.
All the frustration and bitterness that I had earlier is gone. I am looking down at her face as she is sleeping and a wave of peaceful joy passes through me. Finally, after a long time, I place her gently back in her crib sleeping soundly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you….
What are you grateful for? Let us know by clicking on “leave a comment” below.
A few months back I read/heard a line that went something like this, “start each day out by stating what you are grateful for.”
I thought I’d try it…really, there was very little cost to me (a minute every morning while I brush my teeth) and it made sense – think about those positive things in your life in the morning and you will probably feel better about the day ahead.
It brought me back to work on Appreciative Inquiry and Management. David Cooperrider from Case Western Reserve University developed this model of management interaction in the 1980’s and 1990’s (see here or here) that is based on the assumption that organizations change in the in the direction of their inquiry (i.e., if you inquire or focus on the positive you will find or grow more positive in your work – the opposite is also true – if you inquire or focus on the negative, you will find or create more negative elements in your work).
By starting each day with a positive affirmation of what I appreciate, it has helped me view things in a more positive light. Some key things that I’ve found in this:
1. I immediately feel a greater sense of calm. By thinking about what is good in my life, I tend to find that much of the worry about deadlines or budgets or workload get pushed aside and I physically feel a calm come over my body.
2. I feel rejuvenated. The act of being grateful tends to rev me up. It makes me feel like I want to work harder to achieve more.
3. I tend to be more appreciative throughout the day. My morning gratitude exercise helps me focus on positive things throughout the day – I tend to be more aware of them and grateful for them.
So I welcome you to try this little experiment for yourself. Take a minute each morning when you wake up to just say thank you for the things that are going well in your life. If you are like me, you will find that this little activity can have really positive effects on your entire day.
So thank you for taking time to read this and for letting me expound on my little touchy-feely side…
I would love to hear from people (click on the comment section) and find out if they tried this (or something similar) and what it does for them.
Derik Sivers tells us that to not share your goals with other people will make them more likely to be achieved. This is contrary to everything that I’ve ever heard or read…thus I like it (but I’m also a bit skeptical).
There are some very interesting insights into how the mind works that makes this have some credibility for me (watch the video). If true, this would have a lot of implications not only for the motivational work that we do, but for motivation theory in general!
I will need to do some more research on this. Would love to hear your thoughts.
I just had to laugh at the second clip in this. Wally should be up for a very large bonus based on his analysis…
What is sad, is that many companies reward programs actually would reward this type of behavior. Not failing is actually seen as a positive and rewarded. This leads to all sorts of behavior that minimize risk and limit exploration. Think about what this means for a company long term? Think the type of culture it breads? Do you think people really want to work in a company that rewards the Wally’s of this world?
We do a lot of work helping improve how teams operate. Some of it is straight old fun team building – you know the type where you go off-site for a day and do different types of games and activities (note – some people love these types of programs and others detest them with a passion). Other programs we do are much more intense and involve really working on specific team issues and developing action plans for greater collaboration, communication, or productivity.
We’ve worked with big teams. We’ve worked with small teams. We’ve done programs for executives and for line-workers. We’ve worked with teams that are working well and just want to get to that next level and teams that really are on their last leg and need immediate urgent care or they will implode.
We have done one hour fun sessions. We’ve created on-going programs that last months and require intensive work by the participants.
Regardless of the type of team development we are doing – it is also part of building a more motivational organization.
I’m linking to this blog as it has a great post that highlights some of the “old school” thinking that is still out there. It amazes me that in this day and age there are still managers that believe that showing appreciation is a bad thing….
Ok, this is a little bit of a teaser…we are in the process of doing a major overhaul of how we look at the 4-Drive Model. We’ve talked about the need to update this model before (see here and here). We are underway in getting that developed and should be launching it the first quarter of 2011.
